World food prices fell 20.5% in March from a record a year ago due to the invasion of Ukraine, but remain “very high,” the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations reported on Friday. and Agriculture (FAO).
“Abundant supply, weak import demand and the extension of the Black Sea Grain Initiative (the shipping corridor that allows exports from Ukraine) have contributed to this decline,” the organization noted.
They then noted: “Despite the fact that prices fell globally, they are still very high and continue to rise in domestic markets, which poses additional problems in terms of food security,” said Máximo Torero, FAO’s chief economist.
The fall in the prices of grains, of 5.6% compared to the previous month, and of vegetable oils (-3%) offset the rise in sugar (+1.5%), right now at “its highest level high since October 2016 due to fears linked to a drop in production projections in India, Thailand and China,” said the FAO.
The price of wheat fell 7%, “driven by strong production in Australia, improving crop conditions in the European Union, supplies from Russia and continued exports from Ukraine.”
World maize prices fell 4.6%, partly on “expectations of a record crop in Brazil” and rice prices fell 3.2% on “harvests underway or imminent in major exporters such as India, Vietnam and Thailand.”
